3 - Homo imago Dei: the contemplation of the countenance of Christ in the interiority of the person. B - Architecture (contemporary). 1 - Anti-metaphysics: prevailing in pragmatism. 2 - Anti-representative: prevailing in functionalism. 3 - Self-referential: prevailing in individualism. C - Krakow (contemporary). 1 - A-morfic: having lost its figure. 2 -A-theological: having abandoned its metaphisical dimension. 3 - A-critical: having lost its sense. The opposing contradiction between contemporary thought and theologicalphilosophical thought (A) (Fides et Ratio) of John Paul II is thus apparently evident. It is in this very fracture that acts the St John’s wedge “do not fear” : not to split but to unite, as a bridge, immanence and transcendence, aesthetic and metaphysical, pragmatism and representation, individual and universal. The thinking about Architecture has to convert to: B* 1 - Metaphysical: for a space of contemplation. 2 - Representative: for a space of universal interiority. 3 - Objective: for a space of the aesthetic. In this way our glance on the city will inquire about the evolution of the figurative structures of Krakow : from the beginning to our time. We can individuate therefore three topics. 1 - The original structure. 2 - The fortifications of the 19th century. 3 - The contemporary dissolution. In this perspective (A+B*+C*) the project seeks its own origins in history, in memory, in symbols, in the shapes of Krakow and in its landscape. In fact, between the original figure (Vistola-Wawel-walled city) and that of the periphery, emerges the costellation of 19th century fortifications. The concentric and punctiform structure of the fortifications seems to anticipate the dissolution of the city. Instead, every figure of fortification keeps in itself two principles : the direction (the horizontal relationship) with the centre and the disposition (the vertical relationship) of the site. In fact, it roots itself in the site, accentuating its morphogenetic character. The architecture oscillates between what is below and what is above, carrying in every point of the territory its proper figurative identity. The fortifications establishes therefore a dense system of visual relationships and formal hierarchies to protect the centre without, however, imposing superstructures that are imperative or invasive. The project. From this preamble the project is born. First of all it tries to re-establish a figurative triangulation with the Wawel Hill and the walled city, with the Bronislawa Hill and the Kosciuszko Mound, as well as, the formal dissolution of the periphery. For these reasons the project renounces the strategy of a strong intervention, choosing two figurative principles: (1) the areas of the competition (the three islands) determine with their surfaces (slightly modulated) a natural empty landscape analogous to the Blonia (the Cracow Great Common); (2) the architecture immerse completely in the ground, developing the great theme of the inner landscape. It obtains thus a double result : A - the competition area becomes a big parterre for a public park (the space of contemplation, in relation with the Metaphisic of the person by John Paul II. The “roofing” (a double slab structure with a technical interspace 3,60m high) of the architecture becomes the fifth façade, in other words, the thematic gardens or terraces that overlook the “void” of the park. B - the buried architecture draws a great inner landscape (Homo Imago Dei of John Paul II) that varies the sacred with the profane in relation with their specific destinations. The architecture, in this project, is not anymore visible external signs, but perceptible inner signs. It works by reduction, subtraction and concentration. It is a vortex around a vertical axis. This principle transforms itself easily in a gravitational system. The principal figure, the House of John Paul II, is attracted (directed and retained) naturally by the Wawel Hill (the first centre, or the first pivot, of the Polish Sacredness), but with its mass (198m in dia.) it determines the trajectory of the four planets (architecture), all placed on the borders of the islands. An invisible order veiled by the genetic mystery of Krakow. But the difference between the principal architecture (the House of John Paul II) and the others (the four planets) is not only dimensional and hierarchical but is by nature physics (the faith of John Paul II). The big circle embedded on the “T”, being located in the middle of the first island, projects no shadow to the outside. All is contained within its own profile, in its own body: all is casted in the vortex of the spirals (the ramps), in the concave impression of the amphitheatre, in the majestic cavity of the Basilica below or in the circular gallery. The other architecture (the four planets), protrude from the inclined borders of the islands, projecting only partially their shadows to the outside. As if the projection of their forms depend always from the subtle but unrestrainable force emanating from the centre of gravity (the House of John Paul II) and only in this centre their identity can be accomplished. All the architecture of the project have a central plan (receiving light from the great internal courts or vertical cuts - architectural microcosmos) precisely to represent the value of the interiority and self-negation (the opposite of self-referentiality). This condition finds its best shape in the concave amphitheatre in concentric rings (for a seated audience of more or less 15 000) positioned above the Basilica. The open-air assembly aula (“hall”), the Ecclesiastic space, is situated above the domed vault of the Basilica. It is exactly the real and metaphysical sense of community which is expressed in the unity of the circular shape, gathering, that makes this place the focal point of the entire composition. This, in its way, elevates
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the community in the unity of the shape (the circle) that makes half-visible (not yet however perfect in the shape), being the basin lightly sunken in respect of the level of the surrounding parterre, or rather, in respect of the surface that we have defined before that of contemplation. The only sign or shape that emerges from the surface of contemplation is the peak of the Chapel. In its isolated surfacing, lateral position, almost secondary position, is concentrated instead the secret axis, intangible (sacred) in the entire composition. Here is expressed in the isolation of a minor figure (the Chapel), the essence of the Community of the One in the Human Being. The synthesis of all the routes, of all the forms and configurations is concentrated and condensed in a single floating point which is visible from the surface of contemplation : the point of redemption.
Scholastic Philosophy’s graphic games for the design of the gothic city by Maria Teresa Bartoli (page 66)
I will describe, in the shape of a graphic game, a number of unexpected facts that surfaced during a study on the eighteenth century plan of Florence. From such facts an extraordinarily clever drawing emerges, particularly meaningful. Authoritative sources of medieval literature, science and philosophy provide clues to the various meanings of this drawing. The game requires: 1) drawing instruments (a sheet of tracing paper, ruler and compasses, pencil and colours), 2) a map of Florence of which the scale is known, 3) a graduated scale. The game begins. Draw a line with an inclination of 30° on the horizontal line. On this line set three points (A C B) so that the middle point is at a distance of 1000 braccia from the other two points. 1000 braccia correspond to 583,6 meters. Draw now a circle through A and B, with the center in C; draw the diameter on the orthogonal direction to the line AB. The lower extreme of this diameter is D (ill.1). Draw the circle of double area. If you don’t know how, remember the Menon of Plato, where he demonstrates that the ratio between the sides of two squares, the one double of the other, is the root of two (√2). The same ratio will be between the two circles’ radii, the second one equal to the diagonal of the square whose side is the first one. The point where the horizontal diameter intersects the circle is E (ill.2). Draw now a circle whose area is the triple one. This problem is solved in an exercise of the geometric ones in the arithmetical treatise of Paolo dell’Abbaco, in the fourteenth century: the solution is given multiplying the first radius by the root of three (√3); you can also draw a double equilateral triangle which side is the first radius: the largest diagonal will be the radius of the new circle (ill.3). Draw the circle whose area is four times as large: now you foresee the aim of the game and understand that you have to multiply the radius by the root of four (√4), that is to double it. Find the points in which the last circle intersects the line through AB: the left one is O and the right one is T. Draw the vertical line through the center: P will be the superior intersection point (ill.4). Find the circle whose area is five times as large. The radius will be the diagonal of the double square drawn with the first radius, i.e. the product of the radius by the root of five (√5). The vertical axe intersects this circle in the point S. Starting from S, draw the inscribed pentagon, marking the left point R (ill.5). The outcoming figure shows a few points on a sequence of circles, linked each other by mathematical ratios. The succeeding rings have the same area, the one of the inner circle. If we were looking for a criterion of subdivision of a circular land in equivalent lots, this one would be the right start. Now look for a radial division of the circular scheme that puts all the marked points on intersections of radios and circles. We used only angles of 30°, 60°, 90°, 72° (from the square, the equilateral triangle, the pentagon); the division of the round angle in 60 parts (4 x 5 x 6 = 60) is the demanded solution (ill.6). The illustration shows the subdivision in trapezoidal lots of the circular land. Rays divide three hundred lots of the same area, equal to 1/60 of the area of the first circle whose radius is1000 braccia long We are now at the last stage of the game. Put the tracing paper sheet on the map of Florence, oriented with the cardinal points on the axes of the drawing with the following reference points: A near the northern corner of the Santa Croce façade, having the starting line AB on the